Optional reading — researchers
Conceptual framework
Two questions organise the programme: what makes something one thing at a moment, and what makes different states belong to one trajectory.
Status: exploratory
This page is exploratory theory, offered for researchers who want to know how we carve up the question conceptually. The empirical studies do not depend on accepting any part of it. Every preregistered hypothesis is stated in observational terms and can be evaluated by someone who rejects this framework entirely.
Synchronic individuation
Which processes constitute one causally integrated unit at a given state?
Γ asks a question about a single moment. Given a set of processes, what makes them count as one thing rather than several? The working criterion we use is causal integration: components belong to the same unit when their states are mutually constraining to a degree that exceeds their coupling to everything outside the boundary.
In our measurements, Γ corresponds to the internal coherence of a single encounter: whether the material produced in one session hangs together as a single characterisation, rather than as an unrelated list of traits.
What it maps to in measurement
- Internal consistency of statements within one session
- Coherence of the characterisation as judged blind
- Density of mutually constraining detail versus isolated claims
Diachronic continuity
What relation links different states as part of a continuing trajectory?
Λ asks a question across moments. Two states may be materially different and still belong to one trajectory; two states may be materially similar and belong to different ones. The relation we look for is structured, non-trivial dependence: later states carry forward specific features of earlier ones in a way that chance resemblance does not predict.
In our measurements, Λ corresponds to cross-session and cross-medium continuity: whether independent encounters with the same coded target converge on the same idiosyncratic structure, and whether that structure survives the challenge tasks.
What it maps to in measurement
- Agreement between independent mediums on the same coded target
- Persistence of idiosyncratic features across the session chain
- Performance on continuity challenges relative to preregistered baselines
Deliberate boundaries
No physics is assumed. The framework says nothing about quantum field theory, emergent spacetime, or any proposed mechanism for survival, and such ideas are deliberately absent from our protocols and research pages.
Speculative theoretical work, if it is ever published, belongs in separate theoretical papers — never as an assumption built into an experiment.
Γ and Λ are used only as a vocabulary for organising measurements. They are not offered as evidence, and no study outcome is interpreted as confirming them.
Where the testing actually happens
The measurable claims live in the methods and preregistrations. A reader who rejects everything on this page can still evaluate every study we publish.